Shock and Awe
by M Elizabeth Penn
Summary: Everyone's buzzing about this chance encounter. The ending will shock you. Or, the one where miscommunication abounds and it all goes FUBAR fast.


Somebody was following her.

Darcy had left the Tower on a late night coffee run, because SOMEbody (coughClintcough) had used the last of the good stuff. So she loaded up her custom Stark made Taser, grabbed her messenger bag and headed to the Starbucks a block and a half down. It should have been pretty cut and dried, in and out and nobody would be the wiser.

But then she'd noticed the guy tailing her.

She had caught sight of him out of her peripheral vision when she went to cross the street coming out of the employee parking garage. From the quick glances, he looked to be medium height and pretty well built. He had a navy blue ball-cap tugged low over his eyes which was weird, given that the sun had gone down hours ago. He also had on long sleeves, which wasn't exactly strange, but it was still pretty warm for that, even at one in the morning.

When the flow of traffic paused for a brief moment, Darcy made a show of checking the street both ways before going to cross. She paused just a moment longer while looking to her right, and sure enough, he was still there. As the man pulled his hands out of his pockets and began to stride forward, she caught a glint of metal at his left wrist, which sparked something in her brain that told her that it should be significant, but she couldn't for the life of her remember why.

Once across the street, she turned to the left and sped up her gait, just to see if he would continue behind her. Listening carefully, she heard heavy booted feet pick up the pace as well. At the corner, she turned right, and kept up her fast pace, but the tread behind her never abated or faltered. Her heart began to pound a little, but she forced herself not to panic. Reaching into her bag, she found her Taser, and its weight in her hand reassured her.

After about a block, she saw a little niche in between two buildings, a cast iron gate guarding the entrance, and a forest of fire-escapes above. She sent up a little thank you to whoever was listening, that the gate was still open at this time of night. She quickly darted around the corner, hoping against hope that her tail wouldn't follow.

No such luck. She saw him turning too, in her peripheral, and she spun on her heel as he entered the dim alcove.

"What are you-" he was reaching for her when she pulled the Taser from her pocket and pulled the trigger, his stern expression morphing to surprise as his eyes widened and he seized multiple times before toppling backwards in a way that would have been comical if her heart hadn't been in her throat.

The dim inkling in her mind finally flared into full blown recognition at the glimpse of his face, and by the time he hit the ground, her mild panic had morphed into complete horror. She'd just Tasered Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Extraordinaire.

"Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit…" She scrambled towards him, dropping the Taser and pulling her phone out as she fell to her knees next to his prone body. She pulled up her contacts list and scrolled through to the S's as she pressed two fingers to the side of his neck to check his pulse. It was still a bit fast for her liking, but strong, and his chest was still moving regularly, so that was promising. But he was definitely out cold. But she wasn't sure what to expect when he woke up. After all the electricity Hydra had run through his brain for the past seventy-odd years, there was no telling what man would be waking up after a jolt like that.

She glanced back to her phone, and almost panicked again at the sight of the name _Steve Rogers_ shining up at her from the screen. She wasn't sure if she could handle the Disappointed Eyes of Doom that were sure to be turned on her if she dared ask the good Captain for help.

Sam Wilson, on the other hand… Darcy hit the call button.

After several tense moments of the call tone buzzing in her ear, she heard a click and a groggy voice mumble, "Hello?"

"Hi. Sam. It's Darcy."

She heard rustling and a deep sigh. "Hey. What's up?"

"Yeah, so I have a problem…"

She winced at the sharp intake of breath on the other end and the voice that replied was decidedly less sleepy. "What is it?"

"I'm okay! It's just, I had someone following me, and I lured them into an alleyway to Tase them, and then... Well…"

"WHAT? Are you alright?! Where are you right now?" She heard thuds and muffled curses on the other end as she assumed Sam was pulling on clothes and trying to get out the door as fast as possible and not quite managing to do it in a manner even approaching coordinated.

"I'm fine! Really! It's just… The guy following me…"

"Do you know him?"

Darcy hesitated for a moment before blurting out, "It was Bucky!"

There was a long tense pause, and Darcy held her breath almost without realising it. Of course, the last thing she expected was to hear near hysterical laughter on the other end. It went on for a while, so long that Darcy found herself nervously checking Bucky for any signs of waking up. Finally, she heard Sam taking deep breaths, still interspersed with laughter.

"You, hahahahah, Tased BARNES? Hahahaha, oh man, that's just rich."

"Hey, it was an accident! He was following me, and I couldn't see his face! I mean, it's not like we've spoken more than ten words to each other. I didn't recognize him!"

Sam was still chuckling to himself on the other end despite her mini tirade. "I'm just walking out of the Tower. Where are you? I'll come and get you."

"I'm on 43rd, about a block down from the Tower, just past the Emigrant Savings Bank. There's an open metal gate into the alleyway there. Please hurry. I'm not too keen on finding out what happens if I'm alone when he wakes up." At that, she heard Sam curse profusely before he ended the call. A groan came from the man next to her, and she quickly got to her feet in case she needed to make a run for it. Not a moment too soon, she heard the sound of sneakers slapping the pavement in a quick staccato, and Sam rounded the corner.

"Is he awake?" he asked, a bit winded. Darcy was pretty sure he had his t-shirt on inside-out.

"No, but he's on his way there fast," she replied as he looped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a quick half hug before releasing her and walking over to Bucky's prone body. Sam nudged his side with the toe of his sneaker, and the man groaned again, his arm coming up to cover his eyes. Sam stepped back a pace.

"Whassgoinon…?" Bucky slurred, grimacing a bit before dropping his arm and using it to push himself into a sitting position. He looked up at Sam and Darcy, his face confused and his eyes vaguely unfocused.

"Do you remember where you are? What's your name?" Sam asked cautiously.

"'M James Buchanan Barnes, and 'm in Manhattan, New York." The slurring was slowly receding, but the confused expression stayed. "What happened?"

"I'm **so** sorry!" Darcy blurted. Sam's shoulders came almost all the way up to his ears and his hand slapped over his mouth, and Darcy could tell he was just barely keeping a resurgence of laughter at bay. "You were following me, and I thought you were trying to kidnap me to get Jane's research, and I couldn't get a good look at you without letting on that I knew you were following me, and then you followed me when I ducked into an alleyway, and I Tased you," Darcy said, all in a rush, not even pausing to take a breath.

There was a moment of silence, only broken by a snort of aborted laughter from Sam, as Bucky stared at her and processed the information. Then, his face broke into a huge grin as he threw his head back and let out a bark of laughter. Sam finally walked back over to him, and offered him a hand up. Bucky accepted with a quiet word of thanks before bending and picking up the Taser that still lay on the ground as well as his cap, which had gotten knocked loose with the fall. He dusted the hat off and stuck it in his back pocket before turning to Darcy. He was still smiling as he stepped closer to her, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Well, Doll, if you'd wanted me to fall at your feet, one of those gorgeous smiles of yours would have been a helluva lot easier," he drawled, his lips drawn into a smirk. He reached up to his chest, where the wires from the Taser still hung, and yanked hard, wiping the probes on his shirt before holding them out to her with said Taser.

It was Darcy's turn to stare, uncomprehending, at the unexpected response. Not to mention, he was standing just there, looking down at her. His hair was falling almost directly in front of his heavy lidded eyes, and the streetlight right outside the gate was doing some pretty amazing things with his bone structure. When the meaning behind his words fully hit her, they hit her in the gut, starting up a swarm of butterflies. She was pretty sure her face was bright red as she wordlessly took back the Taser. She was amazed she didn't stab herself in the hand as she bunched the wires and probes together and stuffed them into her messenger bag.

She fiddled with the strap of the bag, at a loss for what to do, settling for staring down at her shoes awkwardly. She had spent time in Barnes' presence at team movie nights and hanging out with Steve, but she'd never been the sole object of his very singular focus before. It was intense. She glanced up at him through her eyelashes, and his gaze softened.

"Hey…" he reached out and gently tugged at a lock of her hair, "I'm alright. It would take a heck of a lot more than a Taser to do any damage. I know what you're thinkin', and the truth is, Hydra's electroshock therapy was a heckuva lot more voltage for way too damn long. And honest to God, I was just making sure you were safe wherever you were going. New York City at night is no joke nowadays. But, it was stupid of me not to just ask if I could come with you. No harm, no foul, eh?"

At his words, she realised she was being ridiculous. She briefly glanced over at Sam, who was pointedly looking the other way, studiously examining one of the fire-escapes.

"Well…" she began awkwardly, looking up to see that he was still smiling at her, albeit more gently, "I was on my way to Starbucks for a caffeine run, before I got side-tracked with showing you the business end of my Taser. If you'd like, I could get you a coffee to help make up for all this?"

Bucky's face lit up in a grin as he nodded, and Darcy's heart skipped a beat or two. If she had thought hyper-focussed Bucky was a big deal, she clearly had another think coming. Grinning Bucky was absolutely devastating. She knew her face was probably red, as she grinned back, but she really couldn't find it within her to care.

Bucky offered her his right arm, and she took it, nestling her hand in the crook of his elbow as they began to head out of the alleyway, Sam followed at a short distance and grumbled half-heartedly under his breath about crazy interns and lost sleep. Bucky's hair brushed against her cheek and made her shiver as he leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Would it be too presumptuous of me to negotiate a kiss in addition to the coffee?"

Her head whipped up to look at him, and at the look in his eyes, she decided then and there that he could have whatever he damn well pleased if it meant he would keep looking at her like that.


End file.
